Xanthe

Anna Holbrook (Sharlene, Another World) showed up on the most recent episode (S3E14, Deadutante) of Elsbeth as the victim's first wife.

IMO it makes it worse. John did go on to have an unpopular affair with Felicia. And speaking of things that didn't happen, there was a brief little storyline where a young Vietnamese woman came and stayed on the farm with him. It was unclear whether they had intended to have it turn out that she was his daughter (or Michael's daughter) or something, but nothing ever came of it.

The rape was a flashback and they were very committed to the idea that it was just Donna's self-deception that it had been a rape so that she didn't have to feel guilty about betraying Michael, and oh my goodness isn't this summer hot and sultry and John walking around with his shirt off and Donna trying to stay cool by drinking lemonade and pressing the icy glass against her bare skin while Reginald and Peter scatter incriminating photographs of John and Donna where Victoria can find them.

There was a theory that Scott Lasalle was going to turn out to be a triplet to Marley and Victoria on Another World and that the photograph that Reginald showed Donna that sent her into a mental breakdown was of three babies (as demonstrated by the fact that Donna said "my baby" three times when she saw the photo -- although if I recall correctly Anna Stuart said later that there was no significance in the number of times she said "my baby" or in the number of pillows she grabbed). In the end it turned out that the photo was of Michael's brother John and two infants and Donna's traumatic secret was that John had raped her and might have been the father of the twins instead of Michael. On the one hand I don't think that the triplet story would have been any good, but the John rape story was pretty awful.

Thanks for the recommendation. This is from a few years ago but here's an interview with Ben on a podcast called That One Audition. He talks a little about his parents. https://share.google/IzlX5stxIcM7nuk1w

Mary Beth Hurt has died. Mary Beth Hurt Dead: 'World According to Garp' Was 79 https://share.google/DoKJvpaI5fX2Ig1YT

I recall being in favour of the Matt/Donna pairing at the time, but I remember very few details. It made a bit of a change for both of them while staying within current core families.

Wow, I did not know Christine Andreas had such an extensive musical resume. Tiny typo here -- should be Fran Kubelik with an N.

I remember when Tom Lisanti's Texas book came out he mentioned that he had a lot of Another World-related material left over that he intended to publish in a new book. He expects it to be out later this year. It covers a very narrow time period but hopefully it will be interesting. "The book covers Another World from 1978 to 1982, what led up to it going to 90 minutes (with chapters on the failed soaps Lovers and Friends and For Richer, For Poorer); what went on while it was 90 minutes; and the return to 60 minutes up until EP Paul Rauch left in early 1983." https://www.threads.com/@tomlisanti/post/DWJg6jvEYSa?xmt=AQF0IonKdAQHjgpJoCKUIgPyLM5bI7oD5obwv71coLOOVg

I had been enjoying that song for years, knowing that it referred to a commercial, before I realised that the couple was Nic Coster and his real life wife.

My mother has been watching episodes of The Rockford Files and asked me who was playing a guest role in the latest episode. (She does look things up on IMDB herself but it always annoys her when the photo of the actor is from a different stage of life so she can't recognize them by their appearance.) When I looked it up it turned out to be Robert Hogan, which led me to glance at his credits where I noticed in an incredibly dull coincidence that he once played a character on Law & Order SVU named Grant Harrison. Obviously it is more a testament to how generically ordinary the name is than any intentional easter egg but there you are. Grant Harrison and Vince McKinnon didn't even overlap in Bay City.

You have probably considered this as well, but he would have been in the studio in late 1975 for his role as Peter Goodwin on Somerset. I don't see any indication that the minor character crossed over between the shows or that John and Pat appeared on Somerset as late as that or that Jim and Mary would have appeared at all. I don't see any broadway credits for Lenard in the 1970s on the ibdb but that doesn't mean he wasn't working in NY at the time. Most of the AWHP synopses for 1971-1975 appear to be daily, so I don't know if there is any passing reference to the character there that might ring a bell and give a new trail to investigate.

He certainly disparaged it and wanted to bring in more upper- and lower-class characters. Some quotes from Eight Years in Another World: "Solid middle-class values were idealized through characters who were invariably white Anglo-Saxon Protestants with surnames such as Matthews, Hughes, Stewart, and Randolph." "The existing conventional soap opera family on “Another World” – upper-middle class, professional children of professional parents – was to be contrasted with a group of vigorous young people from the dirt-farm deprivation similar to the bleakness of the impoverished region in which I had grown up. They would join the Matthewses and the Randolphs slowly over several years and in their individual way fight for the social acceptance and economic security their complacent betters took for granted." "We were gaining Frames from Oklahoma and Carringtons from international society circles. The Matthewses and Randolphs remained but would no longer dominate the action." "It would take time to weave the Perrinis into the action, so I set about making Angie a focal figure in a secondary triangle to counterpoint that of Iris, Mac and Rachel. Angie fell slavishly in love with Willis in spite of his blatant pursuit of Carol Lamonte, whose wealth and social standing was worth cultivating far more than the meek little Italian girl from the wrong side of the tracks. The two triangles had much in common: both heroines were brunettes and both spoilers were blonde, a departure from prevailing soap opera formula. Both spoilers were also extremely rich while both heroines were from working class backgrounds, factors which reflected my own prejudices."

I forgot JFP was in the mix in this scenario. I did not watch but I know Linda and Robin went all around ABC with those characters and were revealed to be mother and daughter.